Practice Exams

Getting to work now on the practice exam. I revisited some old documentation and it's scary to see how easy it is to fall into the wrong mindset (panicking about the test and overstudying). The early stuff I read really focused on breaking everything into pieces, zipping through the material at a high level, staying on schedule, and trying to focus on studying versus taking the test. Anywho, now that I'm on the exam practice, it's time to work on weaknesses and really do the work to bump up my score. I'm also shifting from panic to motivated, as I see now that it's a challenging test but not focusing so much on failing and passing but being on prepared and not prepared (subtle shifts).

Interesting note on how to think of Geometric mean vs. Arithmetic mean (it's so simple it may not come across right). When you have a set of numbers, assuming they have the same value, the arithmetic mean gives you what the equivalent is if you ADD them up. The geometric mean, assuming they have the same value, gives you what the equivalent is if you take their PRODUCT. Duh!

Takeaway: As always, it's helpful to go back to the basics and remind yourself why you're doing this and how you're going to take care of it. It's all too easy to get caught up and panic.

Finished with the Books

Taking a moment to celebrate a milestone. I've finished reviewing the material for the test with respect to reading through all the books, but the next month and a half is where the REAL studying gets done. I have to hit the practice tests hard and work on my weaknesses. I can't really put things off as much now, as either I get it or I don't. I'm taking the rest of the day off to rest but I can't wait to start taking practice exams and realizing just how much I've forgotten! Oh boy. Actually, I need to come up with a plan. Maybe a practice exam, and then select the major review sections, then practice exam. No wait, Schweser to the rescue, I need to go to the Schweser web site and do those online review sessions that I paid good $ for. Schwing!

Book 5

Seems like it's been a while since I last wrote. Counter to the whole point of the keeping the blog, I've been very erratic in my study habits. I went one weekend where I flew through an entire book, then another week with barely any progress. The new conclusion is that I need to hurry and finish so I can start doing sample exams. I want about a month and a half to do practice exams and sample problems. Since this is a comprehensive test, it's better now to really focus in on the weaknesses and test taking abilities in this last month, rather than hoping to try to retain everything that's been covered over the last 3 months.

Right now I'm working on debt securities valuation. YTM is tripping me up, although I understand that there is a inverse relationship with the bond value, I keep thinking of YTM as a yield (which it is) but I keep associating higher yield with more value (well, yeah it's more value, because it's sold at a deeper discount). I keep confusing it with higher coupon payments (something that's appealing) but really I have to keep those separate in my mind. Higher yield to maturity, higher discount rate, and higher market yield all drive down the value of a bond.

I will try and get back on schedule. So many "exceptional" weekends and weeks (especially with a semi-new job) have definitely put a big hole into the study schedule but now that there's some regularity, I think I'm back.